Matthew McIntosh

I considered affording this bulk of paper two stars but couldn't merit the charity.

I did not care for this.

The size of it wasn't a factor. Nor were the hundreds of photographs and near empty pages. If we pause and say that the book was instead an installation reflecting our fragmented reality, our need to occupy virtual worlds and conduct our affairs through small screens--then this is still a failure. The language is deplorable. The novel meditates on mortality but uses the plotlines of an after school special. Things are bad when one skips 400 pages ahead to read fifty pages with the idea that if captivated one could circle back.


Within my copy I found a letter from the publisher to Julie Orringer. I feel that the letter is almost an integral part of the experience.… (mer)

theMystery.doc🍒🍒🍒
By Matthew McIntosh
2017
Grove Press

This epic 1600 page book is part memoir, part love story, part mystery and very inventive, original and funny.

The story of a man who wakes up one morning with no memory of who he is, of his life, or of his wife ("or that's who she says she is")-his only clue is a single document on his computer that is called theMystery.doc - the rest is blank. This book is how he fills it in....

I loved the originality and the story within a story. If your looking for an imaginative book- this is one you may enjoy.… (mer)